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Aventinus Eisbock: an epic battle on the palette, like a bullfighter: high risk but high rewards.

The first encounter is like the moment you're just about to fall into a peaceful sleep and being slapped in the face with a wet salmon. At first it will piss you off but shortly after you'll be like ...wasn't really the salmons fault

The scent is slightly confusing like when you think you're smelling a sausage roll only to realise it's your own body odour.

Suitable for dungeons and other dark places...would not recommend drinking anywhere where photosynthesis can take place

Flavours: hmmm where do I start: has hints of banana that a child has regurgitated. Like a burnt caramel flower stomped into methylated spirits yet blessed by the gods of the eastern block.

The loss of motor skills is something that needs to be accepted and will fare with time

A forcible scent, stings the nostrils. Please note: maximum human consumption: 2. One time I saw a dude order 3 I think his name was grim r...or maybe Reaper G?

Not recommended for drinking in sunshine or seeing sunshine for 12-24 hours after consumption.

Tastes like a burnt out log fire doesed in red paradol liquid from your childhood.

Enjoy in a bulbous Aventinus glass.

Only beer that I have ever consumer whilst slaying a dragon....See you in hell.

Dark chestnut until backlit with late morning sun. The beer is then midway between dark cherry and dark orange, with a surprising number of bubbles animating the interior. The pour produced a prodigious crown of frothy foam that crested the top edge of the glass. More stickiness would have been good, but then show me a 12.0% ale that qualifies as a lace monster.

Weizen Eisbock smells like a concentrated weizenbock. No surprise, since that's pretty much what it is. I'm sure the tapering sides of the snifter help. Even though it smells potent, there's barely any alcohol appreciated. Medium-dark fruit (though not much banana) is uppermost, followed by a whiff of clove-like spiciness.

This is definitely good beer, but I'm not blown away. First impressions include a lighter than expected body/mouthfeel and too many bubbles. A five minute wait for warming and CO2 dispersal helps quite a bit. I like the way the flavor profile changes from beer entry to beer exit... and beyond.

Flavors include caramel, chocolate-covered bananas, ripe figs, a hint of anise, a splash of port and a hefty sprinkling of ground clove. The beer is really opening up as it approaches room temperature. It's amazing how well the alcohol is buried. Throat and belly warming is the only evidence of the double-digit ABV.

The mouthfeel firms up enough in the end. It helps that some of the water was removed because that allows the malt sugars to add a finishing slick stickiness that makes it feel more full. Less carbonation would have helped. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't have resulted in a higher score.

I'm amazed that Aventinus Weizen Eisbock is only the third beer of this style that I've ever reviewed. While it isn't a sock knocker-offer like Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock, it's a damn good beer that is fun to sip and savor. It's also widely available and cellars well. I'll be coming back to this one again.

Poures a hazy brown/amber with a nice blooming fluffy head,great aromas of cinnamon and clove with a little smokiness in there along with some lighter caranel notes.Big flavors picked up alot of cinnamon upfront with some caramel and dried fruit along with some late smokiness.Wow what can you say about this brew smooth as it gets going down sweet but not overly so,I will go back to this one sometime to be sure.

Appearance  This poured dirty brown in color with lots of carbonation and a big head considering the monstrous ABV.

Smell  Big, huge dunkles weizen aroma. The yeast is mammoth and shows off a bit of the traditional malty bock as well as a subtle warning of alcohol. The aftermath of this monster aroma is beautifully-spiced banana notes that complete the package.

Taste  Man, what a mouthful. This is the biggest, baddest, dark yeast flavor that Ive ever tasted, and I lived in Germany for six years. The sharp alcohol just adds to the concoction. What a treat!

This is fine alcohol that you would expect from an expensive brandy, and the yeast is the real German deal. The fruity banana comes up huge as well, and the spices (predominantly clove) are large and in charge.

Mouthfeel  The alcohol tinge was big here, but this is what youd expect from the real ice beer. The German weizen flavors came out wonderfully, puffing the cheeks and filling the mouth. It is fuller than full and well worth the effort to chew it down.

Drinkability  I felt like a king drinking this bottle. What an amazing example of this unique and often overlooked style.

I could drink this all day. Well done Eisbocks are tough to beat and this is nearly the best that Ive had. The booze Is covered remarkably well. The phenyls that do come through are pleasing and add to the feel by warming and soothing the mouth, tongue, and throat. Appears deep and dark and deceivingly purple, more a reaction to the bottles label then the beer itself. Medicinal aromas and rich spices, bananas and jams, fermented mystery fruits that you might find in your great aunts cupboard Caramel, bubblegum, yum, yum, yum This is so good! If I ever find this on tap it will lead to one hell of a drunken night, or rather, a great drunken couple of hours followed by a hellish and sleepless night and an even worse morning. This beer is like an M32 grenade launcher. Its versatile and can hit you six times in 3 seconds. I love it.

Note: I am now seeing the reviews of others and noticing that this bottle is dated 2005. It is August of 2007. Perhaps I have reviewed spoiled or stale beer, but isn't this supposed to be one you can cellar?

Wow. Very different. Heavy dark cherry flavors hit hard at the outset. Peppery quality ushers in alcohol, I get ginger again. Alcohol vapors really bring the heat toward the finish. Aftertaste leaves my palate coated and I pretty much feel like I just drank some exceptionally great-tasting cough medicine, but not some exceptionally great-tasting beer.

Everything mellows out and comes together when the beer warms, but still, I am just not into this. I get some herbal hop finally. Any slight flavor contribution from the use of wheat seems to only add to or be swollowed by the harsh qualities of the alcohol. Mouthfeel is flat and very syrupy. I can not finish this.

I know many BAs will have issue with what I'm about to say, but really, if I want this kind of alcohol presence with this kind of flavor profile, I'm going to seek it out somewhere in the world of wine or spirits. I loved Klumbacher's Eisbock becuase I actually thought it did a geat job of bringing a dark, complex, flavor profile with warming alcohol, but still managed to taste very much like beer.

I think this is an interesting drink but lacks the drinkability of beer or the more etherial subtleties of spirits.

A: Pours a deep, hazy brown with amber highlights. Voluminous taupe head that dies down to only a hint of a collar (of course head retention is going to be a challenge with a beer like this, so I'm not going to fault it for that).

T: Big vinous characteristics. The alcohol hinted at on the nose is certainly apparent in the mouth, and dark red fruits emerge from under the alcohol on the midpalate. Though the malts are sweet, they're not overly so at all, with the wheat notes, hop bitterness, and alcohol balancing the malts well and preventing them from seeming overly sweet. Finishes lightly tart, with an aftertaste of fresh grapeskins, rumcake, and a light toastiness.

M: Full-bodied with moderate, tingly carbonation.

D: Surprisingly high. Though concentrated, it's not overly sweet at all, and the flavor profile just doesn't get old. Even at 12%, the alcohol isn't too sharp.

Overall, this brew is a classic and is wonderful, heavenly, outstanding, etc. If you can age a few bottles - do it; I've had this at 4 yrs and it was noticabley better.

first off... I love high octane.. so right out of the gate we are off to a good start... @ 12% alc./ vol... I am in my comfort zone... poured into a snifter from a 12oz. bottle... looks and pours similar to a barley wine!... so far so good, smells much like a barley wine as well...lots of black cherry and a slight hint of vanilla...the taste is full of black cherry and is very carbonated...the finish is short with some lingering heat and slight flavor... all in all... I like this very much... minus the carbonation...

Transparent caramel/amber color with an off-white two finger head on top which reduced to a thin layer. Smell is loaded with bananas and tangerine with hints of clove. Aroma also has some fruit esters consisting of hints of raisin. The alcohol is almost totally hidden with only a slight nuance of it coming to prominence as the beer warms. Taste is of banana pudding so mainly banana flavors with bread and vanilla wafer undertones. Also a slight spiciness makes this beer initially sharp on the tongue. Most of the reviews mentioned the alcohol content being prominent, but I just dont see it. If anything I think it adds to the sweetness of this beer. Mouthfeel is good as well, but not the most notable portion of this one. Too bad I dont have any more of these. Ill have to pick up another on the next trip to the store.

Presentation: 11.2oz brown bottle. Bottle No: 03495 (2001). You can tell that whatever is inside this bottle special. I served my sample in an official 0,5l Aventinus Weizen glass.

Appearance: A deep, cloudy brown beer with amber edges and a massive off-white foam head -- good retention. There is yeast in the bottle, hence its being a cloudy brew. Personally, I recommend that you pour 2/3 into the glass then take the remainder and swirl up that yummy yeast and pour it into the glass too.

Smell: Phenolic/clovey with musty aromas, soft grains.

Taste: Smooth, creamy and beyond malty on first contact. Malt body is full, thick, syrupy with treacle, honey, coffee, buttery toffee, chocolate, rum and a unique tropical fruity quality way back on the palate. Clove flavours pop-up all over, and you can taste a bit of the wheat and its husky tannins. Alcohol is there, and warming. Things get a bit coarse for a moment as a raw hop flavour tries is hardest to break thru the malt. It fails. The malt wins, and as a result there's very little bitterness (touch of cheesy flavour and feel, but it's real of hidden). Finish is soft, with all sorts of wacky residuals on the palate.

Notes: This is one rich and robust beer with incredible depth and complexity. I love this beer. It's got a Plato of 28.7 or around a 1.117 specific gravity, which is very high. Hard to tell the alcohol content without knowing how it finished, but you can be assured that it's very high, especially given the freezing process of this beer -- said to be around 12-13%abv. This beer is a must for wheat beer and/or beer cellaring fans. Absolutely luscious.

Up until the 1940's, Aventinus was shipped all over Bavaria in containers lacking temperature control. Consequently, the precious drink partially froze during transportation. Unaware that theb rew was concentrated by the separation of water from the liquid, people were baffled by this stronger version of Aventinus. By chance, the first Aventinus Eisbock was created.

Well aware of this story, Hans Peter Drexler, brewmaster at the Schneider Brewery, decided to recreate this classic "mistake" in a modern controlled facility. Thus, the Aventinus Eisbock is reborn sixty years later. Now it's brewed in limited qualities throughout the year.

Pours a deep amber-red-brown with a rather fizzy tan head that dissipates after 5 minutes or so. Very well-packed yeast on the bottom that releases with a schwirl. The smell is spectacular - like sweet clovey licorice, very distant banana esters, and whiffs of alcohol. Very appetizing.

Starts with a banana-clove-chocolate flavor followed immediately by a extraordinarily round alcohol/dunkelweizen/dark fruit (prunes/raisins/sugarplum) body. Some oiliness on the tongue, alongside a slightly prickly mouthfeel. Somewhat sweeter that the standard Aventinus, but the sweetness is well controlled. The finish is very warm, satisfying, with hints of green apple waaay in the background joining in with the aforementioned flavors. The alcoholic presence increases as it warms. The yeast slurry has a more bitter flavor - add judicously if that's your preference, otherwise it makes a fine chaser. An outstanding brew to sit, sip, enjoy - ausgezeichnet, Herr Drexler!

Aside on Eisbocks - there's a certain smooth, round alcoholic character that these seem to have - the Heavyweight Lun-Icy at AOBF 1 had a similar character. The alcohol, while stronger, seems to blend better with the rest of the brew. Did I mention that I love Eisbocks?

I need more of this - to age, just to see how the character changes. It'll be interesting to follow this one up with one of my stash of five year old bottles of "regular" Aventinus. Amazing what you find when you clean out your beer cellar.